I LONG to believe, but I must wait for the power.” Times without number have we been met with the foregoing form of speech, when seeking to press upon souls their solemn responsibility to believe the glorious tidings of God’s salvation.
“You know,” it is argued, “I cannot believe unless God gives me faith. It is His gift, and I must wait till He gives it to me.”
In this way many an anxious soul is kept in doubt and darkness on the one hand; and on the other hand, by the same line of argument, careless souls seek to shelve the momentous question of their eternal salvation.
Now, there is a measure of truth in the above statements, but it is one-sided truth, and the one side is turned the wrong way. This is a very common wile of the enemy. It has often been remarked that the devil is never more to be dreaded than when he appears with the Bible in his hand, misquoting and misapplying texts of Scripture. Thus he perverts the precious truth of God, and casts dust in the eyes of men. He does not openly deny the truth, but he hinders its application, and robs it of its force. He says to the anxious soul, “It is no use your worrying yourself. You cannot be sure that this gospel is for you. It is for the elect, and if you are not one of them it is not for you; if you are, you must get the power to believe, you must wait.” In this way precious souls are well-nigh driven to despair Then, again, he says to the careless soul, “You need not trouble yourself about this question of salvation. If you are to be saved, you will be saved, but you must wait God’s time.” Thus the conscience is deadened, the heart hardened, the understanding darkened, and the soul, abandoning itself to its lusts and its pleasures, rushes headlong to eternal perdition.
To all these wily arguments of the devil the Word of God furnishes an answer clear, distinct, and perfectly conclusive. It meets the soul with such a powerful array of most blessed evidence as to hush forever the fears of the anxious, and sweep away every vestige of a foundation from beneath the feet of the caviler.
And, first of all, I would call the attention of the reader to five grand facts―five infallible proofs of God’s love to the sinner, and His most gracious desire that “all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”―facts and proofs perfectly unanswerable.
1. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). Mark the words, “world” and “whosoever.” There is no limit, no barrier, no question.
They are so full, so wide, so all-embracing that not a sinner on the face of the earth can refuse their application. There is no preliminary question to be settled by the sinner; no condition to be fulfilled; nothing to wait for; no possible ground for saying, “I must wait till I get the power to believe.” The glorious fact stands out before us, in all its mighty, moral power, placing everyone who hears it under the most solemn responsibility to believe it. For any one―in view of such a magnificent demonstration of divine love―to say, “I am waiting for the power to believe,” is simply to make God a liar (1 John 5:1010He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. (1 John 5:10)).
2. But not only did God give His only begotten Son, but we are told in Isaiah 53. “it pleased Jehovah to bruise him.” God forsook His beloved Son on the cross, hid His face from Him, caused all the billows and waves of His righteous wrath against sin to roll over His blessed person on Calvary’s cursed tree. “He delivered him up for us all.” “Made him to be sin for us.” “He set him forth to be the propitiation for our sins.”
The Son of God might have come into this world to visit us in our ruin and misery. He might have lived and labored, and gone back to heaven from whence He had come, leaving us in hopeless misery, worse off than ever, by reason of such a light having shone upon our moral gloom.
But, all praise to His precious, peerless name! He did not. He came, not merely to visit sinners, but to seek and save them. “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19). “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” — even the “chief” (1 Tim. 1). Having come down from heaven, He would not return thither, until, by His precious atoning death, He had made out a title for us to be there with Him.
3. But this leads us to our third substantial proof. Not only did God give His Son, and bruise Him on the cross, but He raised Him from the dead. “The God of peace brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb. 13:2020Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, (Hebrews 13:20)). The God of judgment met the divine Sin-bearer at the cross, and there settled forever the great question of sin; and “the God of peace” has given us the unanswerable proof of the settlement by raising Him from the dead. “He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4).
4. But all these glorious facts of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, might have taken place, and the writer and the reader of these lines have heard nothing about them. Thanks and praise to our God, He took care of this. He sent down the Holy Ghost in the name of the risen, ascended, and glorified Saviour, to announce these glad tidings to us. That august witness came down, on the day of Pentecost, to make known, in every language under heaven, the glad tidings of God’s full and free salvation to every creature.
5. But the stirring events of the day of Pentecost might have taken place, God the Holy Ghost might have come down from heaven and announced His glorious message of pardon and peace, and gone back again. Thanks and praise to our God, He did not. He has been here ever since. He is here still, patiently laboring and testifying, amid all the opposition and enmity of earth and hell, men and devils, to make known to the ends of the earth the salvation of God. He has, in patient grace and tender mercy, caused the four grand facts already adduced to be committed to writing. He has written a Book! Wondrous, glorious, precious fact for us!
Yes, reader, we want you to weigh this our fifth infallible proof. What God did, in divine power, on the day of Pentecost, He has, in divine patience, been doing ever since, namely, speaking to men in their own dialect wherein they were born. He has caused His blessed Book, originally written in Hebrew and Greek, to be translated into two hundred and eighty dialects, and wafted all over the earth. He has watched with loving, faithful vigilance His precious Book during long dreary centuries, preserving it from all the efforts of the devil to destroy, it, and employing various agents to translate it into the different languages, and distribute it all over the earth.
Reader, we would affectionately ask you, Can you any longer say, “I am waiting for power to believe”? Have we not placed before you an array of facts, a body of evidence, sufficient to convince your heart of the truth that God desires your salvation? Why take all these pains―why put into your hands His own peerless revelation―why send you such a message, if He did not mean you to make your own of it? Do you really want salvation? If so, He says, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” He is infinitely more willing that you should have it than you can be to get it. Why hesitate? He has given His Son; bruised Him on the cross; raised Him from the dead; sent down the Holy Ghost; put into your hands, or within your reach, the Holy Scriptures; and, in the face of all this, you ate looking for some indefinable feeling in yourself without which all that God has done and said goes for nothing.
But you inquire, “Must I not wait God’s time?” He replies, “Now is the accepted time; and now is the day of salvation.” “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. “The fact is, all this idea about waiting for power, waiting for faith, waiting God’s time, is grounded on misapplied texts, and one-sided theology. Be assured it will not stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; it cannot stand before His word. He says,” If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?” He appeals to the truth of what He says as the ground on which He ought to be believed, to wait for anything to make His word true to you is to make Him a liar. Tremendous consideration for all whom it may concern!
In conclusion, we would most earnestly and affectionately entreat the anxious reader to abandon at once and forever the false and dangerous ground indicated by the expression, “I’m waiting for power.” It is simply a delusion used by the enemy to rob you of the present joy of God’s salvation―the sweet sense of His love. There really is nothing to wait for. God has done all that was to be done: and He tells you so in His Word, which is settled forever in heaven. Do not dishonor God’s Word and wrong your own soul by raising objections which have no foundation in the Word of God. Just take Him at His word. Believe what He says, because He says it. This is faith; and faith is the gift of God, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift. Think not for a moment that faith is something of your own. Far be the thought! It is simply setting to your seal that God is true. It is believing with the heart what God says. “If thou shalt confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God path raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)).
Do you ask, “What is meant by ‘believing with the heart’?” We reply by asking you, Are you really interested in the blessed salvation of God Does your heart desire it? Then accept it in your heart this very moment. Believe it, not merely in the head, as an historical fact in which you have no particular interest, but in your heart as a precious message from the heart of God to you. This is believing with the heart unto righteousness. Oh! dear friend, do not any longer hesitate to set your seal to the truth of God. Accept Christ as God’s gift to you, and you will no longer have to say, “I’m waiting for power.”
We would, ere parting company with the reader, seek to impress his mind with the solemn fact that the expression which stands at the head of this paper involves the denial of man’s responsibility to believe the plain testimony of God, and make God the author of his unbelief. It amounts to this, “I would believe, but God withholds the power.” This is the real state of the case. We give, in reply, 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 1211And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:11‑12): ― “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Mark this. Men will be damned for not believing. If man is not responsible to believe the truth, can he be judged for rejecting it? “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” C. H. M.